Studio: international art (66.1915)

Wall Tablets and Memorials

MEMORIAL TO LORD NEWTON

BY THE COUNTESS FEODORA GLEICHEN

selves credit when they are called upon to produce
a piece of monumental work. There is lingering
now none of that half-veiled contempt for the
monument as merely the concern of the stone-
mason which was, it must be admitted, professed
by British sculptors a few generations ago; the
spirit in which they are striving now is far removed
from anything of that sort, and the demand made
upon them for memorials small and great is met
with a proper view, of the responsibility it involves.
In recent years we have added much that is
admirable to the sum total of fine work of this
■class, much that does credit to both the capacity
.and the conscience of the artists concerned, and
that proves them to be as judicious in their
■estimate of the obligations imposed upon them as
they are accomplished in their management of
executive essentials.

One matter which affords ample cause for
congratulation is the anxiety of the modern sculptor
to devote as much attention to the smaller type of
memorial as to the larger and more ambitious
works in which he has scope for the full display of
his ingenuity and his powers of invention. He
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does not treat the little things in a perfunctory
manner or handle them in accordance with a
prescribed convention ; he shows instead a healthy
desire to make the most of the opportunities which,
within the limitations of his subject, are available
for him and to do all that is possible with the
material at his disposal.

Naturally, the colossal monument, which does not
come within the scope of the present article, gives
more chances for the creation of striking effects and
allows the sculptor who has it in hand more space
for the expression of his artistic individuality.
When he is working on a large scale he is less
restricted both in his disposition of masses and in
his handling of accessory detail; he can be, if he
wishes, sumptuous and expansive and can aim at
big results, and he can risk something to attain a
special measure of success. But in the smaller
memorials, in work such as is illustrated here, he is
hedged round by far more definite boundaries;
and he has much more subtle problems to solve,
for he has to steer with infallible discretion a
difficult middle course between the simplicity which

MEMORIAL TO CECIL BOYLE, IN THE ANTE CHAPEL, UNI-
VERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. BY HENRY PEGRAM, A.R.A.